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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 05/28/2006 : 10:24:42
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I pass this on for anyone interested in getting an early paste of what to expect from the media during the next US Presidential run. To wit:quote:
The dominant political force of our time is the media.
Time after time, the news media have covered progressives and conservatives in wildly different ways -- and, time after time, they do so to the benefit of conservatives.
Consider the last two presidents. Bill Clinton faced near-constant media obsession with his "scandals," while George W. Bush has gotten off comparatively easy.
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2006 : 10:41:10 [Permalink]
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| You know what's odd? Conservative friends of mine still complain about the liberal media bias... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2006 : 11:05:45 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Kil
You know what's odd? Conservative friends of mine still complain about the liberal media bias...
I know! I think they're concerned that if a report isn't just unaturally pro-Conservative, then it's biased! Nevermind that, for example, anti-global warming kooks still get air time during reports on the environment. (Imagine giving a flat-earther such an opportunity!) |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2006 : 15:41:55 [Permalink]
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There is a phrase for the propaganda technique of Bush and his cohorts: The Big Lie.
During WWII, the Unites States OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA) had this to say in their psychological profile of Adolf Hitler:quote:
His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
Now, doesn't that look startlingly familiar to our 21st Century eyes?
There is a famous quote which we now hear in many variations, but which began with George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Unfortunately, this cuts both ways. Some people, perhaps such as Karl Rove, seem quite capable deliberately of trolling through the muck of the past to dredge up hoary old propaganda techniques like The Big Lie.
Our primary media (discounting some real journalism on the Web) has become so corporate and cowardly, so inwardly tuned to its own ratings, that it does not even recognize that huge elephant, in the room, The Big Lie. It even accepts Fux News in its midst as though it consisted of journalistic colleagues instead of outright shills for the theonazis.
[Edited to add final paragraph, and for better link and style.]
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 05/28/2006 16:31:42 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2006 : 17:52:54 [Permalink]
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As a further aside on Fux News, there is this opinion piece: quote:
Extra! July/August 2001
The Most Biased Name in News
Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tilt
By Seth Ackerman
"I challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel."--Rupert Murdoch (Salon, 3/1/01)
Years ago, Republican party chair Rich Bond explained that conservatives' frequent denunciations of "liberal bias" in the media were part of "a strategy" (Washington Post, 8/20/92). Comparing journalists to referees in a sports match, Bond explained: "If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is 'work the refs.' Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack next time."
But when Fox News Channel, Rupert Murdoch's 24-hour cable network, debuted in 1996, a curious thing happened: Instead of denouncing it, conservative politicians and activists lavished praise on the network. "If it hadn't been for Fox, I don't know what I'd have done for the news," Trent Lott gushed after the Florida election recount (Washington Post, 2/5/01). George W. Bush extolled Fox News Channel anchor Tony Snow--a former speechwriter for Bush's father--and his "impressive transition to journalism" in a specially taped April 2001 tribute to Snow's Sunday-morning show on its five-year anniversary (Washington Post, 5/7/01). The right-wing Heritage Foundation had to warn its staffers not to watch so much Fox News on their computers, because it was causing the think tank's system to crash.
When it comes to Fox News Channel, conservatives don't feel the need to "work the ref." The ref is already on their side. Since its 1996 launch, Fox has become a central hub of the conservative movement's well-oiled media machine. Together with the GOP organization and its satellite think tanks and advocacy groups, this network of fiercely partisan outlets--such as the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative talk-radio shows like Rush Limbaugh's--forms a highly effective right-wing echo chamber where GOP-friendly news stories can be promoted, repeated and amplified. Fox knows how to play this game better than anyone.
Yet, at the same time, the network bristles at the slightest suggestion of a conservative tilt. In fact, wrapping itself in slogans like "Fair and balanced" and "We report, you decide," Fox argues precisely the opposite: Far from being a biased network, Fox argues, it is the only unbiased network. So far, Fox's strategy of aggressive denial has worked surprisingly well; faced with its unblinking refusal to admit any conservative tilt at all, some commentators have simply acquiesced to the network's own self-assessment. FAIR has decided to take a closer look.
"Coming next, drug addicted pregnant women no longer have anything to fear from the authorities thanks to the Supreme Court. Both sides on this in a moment."--Bill O'Reilly (O'Reilly Factor, 3/23/01)
Fox's founder and president, Roger Ailes, was for decades one of the savviest and most pugnacious Republican political operatives in Washington, a veteran of the Nixon and Reagan campaigns. Ailes is most famous for his role in crafting the elder Bush's media strategy in the bruising 1988 presidential race. With Ailes' help, Bush turned a double-digit deficit in the polls into a resounding win by targeting the GOP's base of white male voters in the South and West, using red-meat themes like Michael Dukakis' "card-carrying" membership in the ACLU, his laissez-faire attitude toward flag-burning, his alleged indifference to the pledge of allegiance--and, of course, paroled felon Willie Horton.
. . .
Apropos of this thread, note this, which I've extracted from the above, "So far, Fox's strategy of aggressive denial has worked surprisingly well; faced with its unblinking refusal to admit any conservative tilt at all, some commentators have simply acquiesced to the network's own self-assessment."
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 05/28/2006 18:27:36 |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2006 : 20:20:40 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
As a further aside on Fux News, there is this opinion piece: quote:
Extra! July/August 2001
The Most Biased Name in News
Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tilt
By Seth Ackerman
"I challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel."--Rupert Murdoch (Salon, 3/1/01)
Years ago, Republican party chair Rich Bond explained that conservatives' frequent denunciations of "liberal bias" in the media were part of "a strategy" (Washington Post, 8/20/92). Comparing journalists to referees in a sports match, Bond explained: "If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is 'work the refs.' Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack next time."
But when Fox News Channel, Rupert Murdoch's 24-hour cable network, debuted in 1996, a curious thing happened: Instead of denouncing it, conservative politicians and activists lavished praise on the network. "If it hadn't been for Fox, I don't know what I'd have done for the news," Trent Lott gushed after the Florida election recount (Washington Post, 2/5/01). George W. Bush extolled Fox News Channel anchor Tony Snow--a former speechwriter for Bush's father--and his "impressive transition to journalism" in a specially taped April 2001 tribute to Snow's Sunday-morning show on its five-year anniversary (Washington Post, 5/7/01). The right-wing Heritage Foundation had to warn its staffers not to watch so much Fox News on their computers, because it was causing the think tank's system to crash.
When it comes to Fox News Channel, conservatives don't feel the need to "work the ref." The ref is already on their side. Since its 1996 launch, Fox has become a central hub of the conservative movement's well-oiled media machine. Together with the GOP organization and its satellite think tanks and advocacy groups, this network of fiercely partisan outlets--such as the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative talk-radio shows like Rush Limbaugh's--forms a highly effective right-wing echo chamber where GOP-friendly news stories can be promoted, repeated and amplified. Fox knows how to play this game better than anyone.
Yet, at the same time, the network bristles at the slightest suggestion of a conservative tilt. In fact, wrapping itself in slogans like "Fair and balanced" and "We report, you decide," Fox argues precisely the opposite: Far from being a biased network, Fox argues, it is the only unbiased network. So far, Fox's strategy of aggressive denial has worked surprisingly well; faced with its unblinking refusal to admit any conservative tilt at all, some commentators have simply acquiesced to the network's own self-assessment. FAIR has decided to take a closer look.
"Coming next, drug addicted pregnant women no longer have anything to fear from the authorities thanks to the Supreme Court. Both sides on this in a moment."--Bill O'Reilly (O'Reilly Factor, 3/23/01)
Fox's founder and president, Roger Ailes, was for decades one of the savviest and most pugnacious Republican political operatives in Washington, a veteran of the Nixon and Reagan campaigns. Ailes is most famous for his role in crafting the elder Bush's media strategy in the bruising 1988 presidential race. With Ailes' help, Bush turned a double-digit deficit in the polls into a resounding win by targeting the GOP's base of white male voters in the South and West, using red-meat themes like Michael Dukakis' "card-carrying" membership in the ACLU, his laissez-faire attitude toward flag-burning, his alleged indifference to the pledge of allegiance--and, of course, paroled felon Willie Horton.
. . .
Apropos of this thread, note this, which I've extracted from the above, "So far, Fox's strategy of aggressive denial has worked surprisingly well; faced with its unblinking refusal to admit any conservative tilt at all, some commentators have simply acquiesced to the network's own self-assessment."
I agree with this completely! It's clearly been a strategy for decades for the operatives on the right to cry "liberal bias" whenever unfavorable news appears. Thus, information can be attacked not on its merits, but simply that it's being disseminated by the "other" side.
It's crooked, but thanks to a rather happy-to-be-uninformed public, it's worked. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2006 : 14:31:20 [Permalink]
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I, for one, find it very troublesome how much control a minority in this country has over the news media. Do you remember as a kid being told all those stories about how the communists controlled the information in their countries. I remember. Now here we are with a worse scenario. There is fairly consistent control over what we see and hear in the news, but most people believe they are getting uncensored news.
I can get real news. I can find out what's going on and it isn't too hard. But what is hard is realizing the majority of people around me are unaware of what is really going on. It's frightening. |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2006 : 15:38:20 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
I, for one, find it very troublesome how much control a minority in this country has over the news media. Do you remember as a kid being told all those stories about how the communists controlled the information in their countries. I remember. Now here we are with a worse scenario. There is fairly consistent control over what we see and hear in the news, but most people believe they are getting uncensored news.
I can get real news. I can find out what's going on and it isn't too hard. But what is hard is realizing the majority of people around me are unaware of what is really going on. It's frightening.
Right, b'gal. It's not too hard to get a broader perspective on out news/media intake. But if people are too lazy or worse like the lies, then it becomes a problem. How many people still think that Al Gore said he "invented the internet"? Liberal media? Ha! |
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Robb
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2006 : 10:42:05 [Permalink]
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One way the media is not conservative is in the way it treats womens issues. Whenever a story is about abortion, wages, mothering, etc. most of the time they quote or interview someone from NOW, thinking that NOW speaks for all women on these issues. The only time I have seen an alternative womens group quoted is if they are doing a special report on that group.
I think that the media is somewhere in the middle because liberals and conservatives complain it is biased the other way.
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Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. - George Washington |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 13:17:36 [Permalink]
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| Robb, the most common women interviewed over abortion issues in the news are from Planned Parenthood, not NOW. Planned Parenthood runs abortion clinics and are advocates for women's rights to control their body. They certainly provide a better representation of women's issues than James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Fallwell, all rich white men! |
| Edited by - beskeptigal on 06/05/2006 13:18:30 |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 15:19:53 [Permalink]
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Unfortunately, without hard data it's hard to say whose opinions are being voiced when the media cover a topic like abortion. My experience is that they tend to have people from both sides (at least, when you listen to "liberal" outlets like NPR, or even more mainstream sources. However, when it comes to something like global warming and other environment issues, the "other" side's position is so untenable that they don't merit any attention. Yet, out of fear of Rush, et al calling them "biased" they'll trot out some anti-warming crank and give him 15 seconds to parrot the Exxon-Mobil talking points.
Bias, indeed! |
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